Head to head · Open-weight models you run yourself · October 2026 research run
Gemma 4 31B IT vs Step 3.7 Flash
Gemma 4 31B IT scores 74.1 (BB) on agent readiness against Step 3.7 Flash's 59.8 (C), and leads in 3 of 4 scored categories. Both do open-weight models you run yourself.
Best open-weight models you download and run yourself for AI agents · All 6359 open weights comparisons
Which one, for what
Best for An agent with a 24 GB GPU or more that wants a dense multimodal cousin with tool calling under a plain licence
Ahead on
- Reach, 95 against 70
- Risk, 70 against 45
- Documentation and upkeep, 65 against 39
Also in its favour
- Agent-ready, a grade of BB or better
Watch for
No safety evaluation results published
Best for Teams with a GPU server or a provider account that want an open, long-context agent model with vision
No category where it leads by five points or more, and no fact that sets it apart.
Watch for
About 131 GB to run at 4 bits with images, over a 128 GB machine's share
Why the edge
Each category where one leads by five points or more, with the reason behind each side's score from its assessment. The numbers are in the table below; this is what they stand for.
Documentation and upkeep Gemma 4 31B IT +26
Gemma 4 31B IT 65
Model card 20, all seven items are there, with languages given as counts. Training data 10, a general description with a January 2025 cut-off. Last change 10, the files last changed on 20 July, 104 days before 1 November, and Google's reference code for Gemma 4 last changed in a way that runs this model on 6 July, both inside 180 days. Responsiveness 10, Google answered 14 of the last 40 discussions, none since 30 July. Version policy 10, earlier generations are kept in their own repositories with dated releases. File health 5, two template reports wait without a reply.
Step 3.7 Flash 39
Model card 14, Intended use, the architecture, the parameters, the context and the language (in the metadata) are on the card. Training data 0, Nothing on the card about the training data. Last change 10, the last commit, on 3 June 2026, fixed the modelling code, 160 days before this check and within 180. Responsiveness 0, none of the 11 most recent discussions that aren't pull requests (29 May to 24 June 2026) has a reply from a stepfun-ai member, counted on 10 November by author flags and dates with a script, text not read. Version policy 5, Step-3.5-Flash stays in its own repositories and 3.7 came out in new ones, with no dated note on the older cards that we read. File health 10, Config, template and card agree on the architecture and the context, and June commits fixed the modelling code. 14 + 0 + 10 + 0 + 5 + 10 = 39.
Reach Gemma 4 31B IT +25
Gemma 4 31B IT 95
Memory 25, Google's own QAT Q4_0 GGUF is 17.7 GB, which with a fifth added comes to about 21 GB and fits a 24 GB card even with the vision projector. Runtimes 25, released code in llama.cpp, Ollama's library, vLLM, SGLang and Transformers fills the cap without LM Studio, which only Google's guides name. Builds 15, Google ships a 4-bit GGUF and a 4-bit compressed-tensors build, read as two of the kinds the checklist names. Terms 15, plain Apache 2.0 with nothing added. Download 10, no gate and no account. Hosted 5, Google's Gemini API serves it today.
Step 3.7 Flash 70
Memory 5, the smallest build at 4 bits is StepFun's IQ4_XS GGUF, 104.99 GB with the 3.97 GB projector, and 108.96 GB × 1.2 = 130.8 GB, over what the reference machine can give a model and within 256 GB. The IQ3 and Q3 builds are below 4 bits and aren't read. Runtimes 20, Released vLLM 0.33.0, SGLang 0.5.23 and Transformers 5.22.2 have the step3p7 model, and llama.cpp b12242 has the architecture, with StepFun's own GGUF. Four at 5 each, and the card documents all four. Builds 15, StepFun publishes GGUF at five quantised precisions, an FP8 build and an NVFP4 build. Terms 15, Apache 2.0 in the card's metadata and its licence section, an OSI licence with nothing added. Download 10, the Hub API reports gated false for all four repositories on 10 November 2026, so the files download with no account and nothing to accept. Hosted 5, StepFun's own API serves it, per the card and our StepFun API listing, and Featherless and DeepInfra are live for it on Hugging Face. 5 + 20 + 15 + 15 + 10 + 5 = 70.
Risk Gemma 4 31B IT +25
Gemma 4 31B IT 70
File safety 25, safetensors only and no code from the repository runs to load it or build prompts. Provenance 15, the files come from the google organisation that gemma.ai links to, with a SHA-256 for every weight file and a git hash for every file. Safety evaluation 0, Google says violations were minimal but publishes no results. Agent guidance 10, the card says what its safety training covers and asks for content safeguards, and the tool guide says to validate calls, but there is no prompt-injection guidance. Licence risk 15, Apache 2.0 carries none of the deductions and its link works. Security programme 5, Google's company-wide security.txt and reward programme exist but nothing ties them to Gemma, and no public advisories were found.
Step 3.7 Flash 45
File safety 15, safetensors and GGUF only, no .bin, .pt or .pth files (25). Provenance 15, the files sit in the stepfun-ai organisation, which the card's StepFun platform and model page belong to (10). Safety evaluation 0, no safety results on the card. Agent guidance 0, the card has no limitations section and gives no guidance on prompt injection, instruction priority, refusals or safeguards. Licence risk 15, Apache 2.0 has no use policy, threshold or change clause. Security programme 0, no way to report a flaw on the card, and our StepFun API listing found no security.txt, bug bounty or disclosure policy. 15 + 15 + 0 + 0 + 15 + 0 = 45.
Score by category
| Category | Weight this run | Gemma 4 31B IT | Step 3.7 Flash | Edge |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Capability | 35%pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Reach | 25%25 | 95 | 70 | Gemma 4 31B IT +25 |
| Risk | 20%20 | 70 | 45 | Gemma 4 31B IT +25 |
| Agent interface | 10%10 | 85 | 85 | even |
| Documentation and upkeep | 10%10 | 65 | 39 | Gemma 4 31B IT +26 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | 0 | |
| Total | BB 74.1/100 | C 59.8/100 |
Facts side by side
| Fact | Gemma 4 31B IT | Step 3.7 Flash |
|---|---|---|
| Kind | Open-weight model | Open-weight model |
| Vendor | Google DeepMind | StepFun |
| Hosted endpoint | no (local only) | no (local only) |
| Transports | ||
| Auth | None | None |
| Pricing | Free | Free |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | Apache-2.0 | Apache-2.0 (metadata and card; no LICENSE file) |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | yes | no |
| Last release | 2026-07-20 | 2026-06-03 |
| Terms last updated | no document linked | no document linked |
| Privacy policy last updated | no document linked | no document linked |
| Agent reviews | 3.8/5 (4) | none |
Verdicts
Gemma 4 31B IT
A dense multimodal cousin with documented tool calling, optional thinking and a 256K context, for general agent work and image reading on one 24 GB GPU through Google's 4-bit build. It runs in every major runtime under plain Apache 2.0. The main risk is that Google publishes no safety results and has gone quiet on the repository since July.
Step 3.7 Flash
A capable open agent model with a clean licence, every kind of build and four released runtimes. Two things hold it back: it's a little too big for a 128 GB machine at 4 bits, whatever the card says, and StepFun has gone quiet on the repository since June. No safety results, limitations or data description.
Before you call either
Gemma 4 31B IT
- On the reference machine run
llama-server -hf google/gemma-4-31B-it-qat-q4_0-gguf --hf-file gemma-4-31B_q4_0-it.gguf --jinja -c 32768, adding gemma-4-31B-it-mmproj.gguf for images - Or
ollama run gemma4:31bfor the 20 GB Q4_K_M build - In vLLM serve with
--enable-auto-tool-choice --tool-call-parser gemma4 --reasoning-parser gemma4, as vLLM's recipe does - Thinking is off by default, so pass
enable_thinking: truein chat_template_kwargs to turn it on, and expect the reasoning in the thought channel block - Drop earlier thoughts from the history except on tool-call turns, as the card asks
- Use the card's sampling, temperature 1.0, top_p 0.95, top_k 64
- Validate function names and arguments before running a call, and check JSON output yourself or use the runtime's guided decoding
- The w4a16 build relies on Marlin INT4 kernels that vLLM marks unsupported on AMD, so use the GGUF on the reference machine
Step 3.7 Flash
- On a 128 GB machine the 4-bit GGUF won't fit with a working context. Use StepFun's API or a provider, or a server
- On vLLM or SGLang pass
--tool-call-parser step3p5 --reasoning-parser step3p5 - The card's commands pass trust-remote-code. Released Transformers 5.22.2 has the model built in if you'd rather not run the repository's code
- For llama.cpp load the mmproj file from StepFun's GGUF repository for image input
- StepFun's API has two hosts. Use the one where your key was issued,
api.stepfun.aiorapi.stepfun.com - The same model is on our StepFun API listing, with prices and terms
Questions
Which is better for AI agents, Gemma 4 31B IT or Step 3.7 Flash?
Gemma 4 31B IT scores 74.1 (BB) on agent readiness against Step 3.7 Flash's 59.8 (C), and leads in 3 of 4 scored categories.
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Machine-readable
- This page as Markdown
/compare/gemma-4-31b-it-vs-step-3-7-flash.md· slim.min.md· JSON.json(or sendAccept: text/markdown) - Each listing in full
/api/v1/tools/gemma-4-31b-it.json·/api/v1/tools/step-3-7-flash.json - From a terminal
anchor compare gemma-4-31b-it step-3-7-flash(the CLI) - Over MCP
compare_tools {"a": "gemma-4-31b-it", "b": "step-3-7-flash"}at/mcp, no key